was love in the air in corporate america this past week because of valentine's day, or were companies deciding to fall in love with each other and merge? and hugheser bush and groupo mo del low moved closer to their beer merger. warren buffett announced 80s buying is food giant heinz. and if u.s. regulators allow it, usair will take over bankrupt american airlines creating the world's biggest airline in the process. that deal is good for investors but passengers worry airfares will salute up. but take a look at this. just after airline deregulation came into effect, there were 20 major airlines in the united states. by 1990, there were only 12 major airlines in operation.

today just seven and with "uss air and american merging we'll be down six. usair and american don't have a lot of overlapping routes or hubs. in the end there will only be about out routes out of the 9000 or so that will be served by one airline. they may see fares go up. but look at this. since 1979, prices for an average domestic economy airfare have dropped from $579 then to $365 now though they have started to tick up a little bit lately. so so much for that myth that merging airlines causes prices to go up. thanks for watching me this week. find me on niceback at facebook.com/ali velshi "see you monday at 3:30 p.m. for your moneyly daily". have great weekend. hay there, everybody.

it is 2:00 p.m. on the east coast. 11:00 a.m. on the west. for those of you who are just tuning in, thanks so much for joininguous. i'm deborah feyerick. here are some of the top stories we're following in the cnn newsroom for you. people in russia are cleaning up the damage after a meteor blast over theure rales. officials estimated the destruction at over $33 million. more than 1,000 people were injured in the meteor blast. divers looking for the meteor in a frozen lake have not found any traces so far. in south africa, the country's olympic hero oscar pistorius denies killing his girlfriend on valentine's day. he's spending the weekend in jail. he's charged with the killing of his model girlfriend reva steenkamp with a .9 millimeter gun. the reality tv show featuring steenkamp premiered just a short time ago despite her death. this could come out of the means. police in texas shoot and kill a

fugitive who had a community on edge and schools on lock down for days. guards were driving alberto morales to las vegas. they stopped for a bathroom near dallas. that's when police stay he stabbed a guard with a pair of eyeglasses and took off. he was shot just midnight a few miles from there. the guard who was stabbed will be okay. you could call it fiscal cliff 2.0. it's just days away unless the president and congress reach a new budget deal. if they don't massive spending cuts to defense and social programs take effect march 1st. administration officials are warning it won't be pretty. >> there will be disruptions in coast guard activities, disruptions in airport activities. big disruption in cargo and cargo inspections which delays the whole supply chain coming into the country. so there will be many, many dil tierious effects. >> emily schmidt is in

washington. we have been down this road before. here we go again. when we talk about disruptions, are those actual disruptions or sort of belt tightening moves? >> deb, really when you hear from these agencies, they are saying a lot of the impacts of all of our lives will be touched this. they'll start with $85 billion in automatic cuts this year. a total of $1.28 trillion over the next ten years. these are cuts meant to trim the deficit. but if it happens, could you see other cuts in services that you use every day. we're going to start with the food you eat. the agriculture department predicts meat inspector furloughs meaning that meat and poultry and plants would have to shut down nationwide for up to 15 days. the agriculture department twharns could create a meat, poultry and egg shortage. you'd end up paying for to get them. there would also be about 2100 fewer food safety inspections every year. the department of homeland.security says expect

longer waits at airport security checkpoints. the department of the interior says if you're going on vacation, there will be reduced hours and services at 398 national parks. visitor programs at nearly all 5618 refuges would end. education now, the department of cakes says 86% of school districts not be able to make up the losses of sequestration in the next school year. and it the cuts could even impact programs you don't even know you need yet. fema says the disaster relief fund for severe weather survivors could be cut by more than $1 billion. all of these numbers are coming from these letters that agency heads sent to the appropriation, senate appropriations committee. you can see we would need hours actually to outline all of the cuts that are described here. >> emily schmidt, thanks so much. we'll see whether they get it done or whether we go to the wire again. there seems to be an app for just about everything. now there's one that helps you find your clothing. like you know this place jacket

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visit a sprint store, with two times the points on dining in restaurants,? you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. level with hi-tech clothing, smartphone connected gloves and jackets hit the runway this week at new york fashion week. laurie segal talks to one designer who is blurring the lines between fashion and technology.

>> here the an fashion week, you'll see the latest fashions but what you haven't seen is hi-tech fashion of the future. ♪ >> that's ashl levine, he's dressed lady ga. unlike most designers this fashion whiz is sending tech down the runway. >> this is the computer chip that we have invented in our premium jackets. >> his fall collection, a smartphone keked clothing line. >> how many of you have lost your gloves? >> the chip connects with tiebreaker app on your smartphone. >> we thought to embed it in the items that you may lose or left behind or those really important items. as you walk away, this is your proximity meter. it will flash green in your close and go into yellow and orange and then red and eventually beep if you've walked too far away. >> i've got my smartphone and i can find my gloves using my

phone essentially. >> yes. and you could press a button on your gloves and the phone will ring. >> a collaboration with a bluetooth company called halo represents the next frontier of fashion. >> technology has always been a part of fashion. you see it even in gym socks, breathable material. who's to say gps system isn't what's next. >> it hasn't been do done before. we also have different partnerships with other technology firms where we sit around a table and go, what are we going do. >> that's what he did last season in anher feat combining tech and fashion teaming up with maker bot which allows you to print 3-d designs at home. the outcome, printable clothing. >> i thought why not be able to download a piece or download something. we thought of like sunglasses. >> when it comes to what's next, levin's line experiments with fabric. >> we incorporate innovation whether it's a partnership with a technology firm or of our own

materials. like this is actually a liquid before it becomes this. >> so if hi-tech is the fashion of the future, what does a levin line down the road look like? perhaps a weather-reading jacket. >> maybe the next one is we have that device talk to a communicate with some sort of air chambers so you can have a device that reads the outside temperature and then when you go outside, it automatically inflays to the ideal level to keep your body temperature at its optimum. ing. >> well, very cool clothes and lowry siegel, now joins us from new york. lori, how soon are we going to be able to get these clothes? >> very soon. this is for the fall line. these clothes will hit the store in about august. but what i would say is deb, other fashion designers must be looking at this saying okay, to have a gps tracking chip inside my clothing, that's not impossible. i bet we're going to see not just asher doing this down the

road but a lot of other different designer. >> it seems to make so much sense. what about washing, dry cleaning? do you remove the chip? that was one of my first questions actually. >> i didn't ask him about that. i think part of it, the technology could be a little bit cluchky at first. but you know, the kind of materials he uses, he experiments with all this kind of thing. it was very interesting to talk to asher about the kind of materials he uses. he creates different types of materials. you can imagine he's going to make this so you're not going to have to take it out in the future. one of the bags he has, you can take out one chip and put it on your key or a different kind of object so you don't lose them. this isn't just clothing. you can imagine a future where your house is smarter. you're speaking to your home. had this is really just the beginning. >> very cool. laurie siegel for us is, always interesting. thanks so much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> you don't have to be in new york to enjoy fashion week all thanks 0 our an lynn know cho taking us backstage in just

about 20 minutes. >> hi, beb. coming up on fashion backstage pass, i'll take you behind the scenes for an exclusive look at new york fashion week. we sat down with super model naomi campbell to talk about her career and her notorious reputation for being a diva. you'll see a softer side. plus check out this 18,000 square foot new york townhouse. the owner is the president of coach, and designer of one of michelle obama's inauguration outfits. we're also backstage with alexander wang. he's the hottest ticket in new york and in paris with an $80 million empire. and just how crazy does fashion week get? we followed three top people in the business to find out. all of that is next on fashion backstage pass. deb? >> looking forward to it. thanks alina. and the pope shocked the world when he announced he was stepping down because of his advanced age. he's 85, almost 86. so what about the most famous

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boep benedict xvi says he's resigning the first time in nearly 600 years that a pope stepped down. in the nethder lands beatrix is done being the queen. what about the world's most famous monarch? is 86-year-old queen elizabeth likely to step aside anytime soon? richard is a columnist for the montecito journal. we are so pleased to have you with us. we have heard from the ballast on this issue in pretty broad terms. what are they saying?

>> well, at its simplest no. abdication is a tradition in the house of orange, as you say, beatrix is abdicating at the end of april. she's 75. she's been 33 years on the throne. her mother jewel and nanl also abdicated as did her grandmother, wilhel mina. but with the house of windsor abdication is a very dirty word and goes back to 1936 as we all know with king edward viii when he abdicated the british throne to marry the american wallace simpson and since then, abdication is really very much out of the question. >> well, interestingly though, he abdicated to his brother, obviously, and that's how we have queen elizabeth the line of succession. she os tenably could hand it down to her son prince charles or even prince william and clearly the baby's just a little too young. we don't know whether it's a girl or a boy. but why not? >> well, the british

constitution is hard and fast. queen elizabeth herself blames the abdication crisis on the early death of her father who was duke of york and then became king george vi. he died in 1952, and they've hated the whole idea of abdication ever since. the queen has repeatedly said that she will reign until her death. so charles is going to be in for a very long wait. he's 64 now. the queen is going to be 87 in april. and her mother, the queen mother was almost 102. so he's more likely to be going up the aisle of westminster abbey to the throne on his walker than anything else. it's going to be a short reign like edward vii, he raijed from 1901 to 1910. after charles iii, we will have prince william who is now only 30. he will have a long and glorious raings one hopes and be on the throne for a very long time. there will be no abdications.

this is firmly set in the constitution. when the queen dies we haveching charles as king charles iii for a while and william will come to the throne as william the vi. the queen is very firm. abdication is a no go with the royal family. >> seeing this beautiful young couple up there, you get the sense they have the maturity and they have the wisdom, clearly the duchess of cambridge now pregnant, pictures circulating on the webb, we're not showing them here on cnn. is this couple ever going to get a break? >> not really. i think this is what comes with being the future king of england, and of course, kate is going to be the future queen. the great thing about it, this couple are enormously popular. not only with avowed mon jaricists the older crowd but young people who they've grown up with, they've shown themselves to be very dharming, not aloof, regal, and william has been schooled in the

constitution by his grandmother. but they're both very, very popular. than bodes very well for the future of a royal family in britain, which goes back almost 1,000 years. and, of course, queen elizabeth is going to eclipse queen victoria as the longest reigning monarching in british history. victoria reigned for something like 63 years and seven months. >> we're looking for a very long reign. richard, thank you so much. we always appreciate having you on and getting your insights into the royal family. thank you so much. >> my pleasure. and you may have heard the famous quote sports don't build character, they reveal it. definitely applies to david weir, one of the world's top pair olympians, driven to succeed in spite of what others may see as a disability. here's dr. gupta. >> two olympics, six gold

medals, beijing, london, a landful of world records, world championship titles and six london marathon wins. david weir is one of the top pair everyone had athletes in the world competing in long distance races. he's also confined to a wheelchair. all of it pure upper body strength. >> i couldn't feel my leg buzz they can't move. it's called spinal cord transection. it was damage to the nerves in my spine. the doctors don't know the how or when or why. so it was a disability from birth really. >> he was just a young boy when he decided not to let his disability keep him from his dreams of being an athlete. >> i was into sport very early. at school, it was my best subject. pe. i wasn't very good at anything else. so i knew that i had to get the sport right if i wanted to succeed in life. and i was very lucky and i was talented at an early age, and

wheelchair racing took over my life. >> he began training in ernest at age 8 joining team great britain by 11 and started winning medals at the age of 25. >> i've done a lot really in a short space of time. >> he's also starting to give back, helping to train the paraolympic athletes of tomorrow. >> encourage them and give them advice and tactics and the way to sit in their racing chair because i've got a lot of knowledge over the years. >> wier says for anyone dealing with any disability, whether they're headed for the olympics or just want it stay fit, exercise is the best medicine. >> makes you forget for a few hours of what's happened and stuff like that. if it's wheelchair racing, basketball, swimming anything just to get out and do something because i think it's just the way of life when you're disabled. another process of healing i think. >> dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, london.

well, two fifth grade boys are accused of i deebious school plot. police say they had a hit list and weapons to back it up. details next.

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